US airstrikes meant to hit ISIL targets in Syria have killed at least five civilians, says a foreign-backed Syrian opposition group. ● The civilians, including one child, were killed in the airstrikes on ISIL positions in northeastern Hasakeh, said the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said fourteen militants have also been killed in the raids on the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said at least one militant checkpoint was hit during the overnight attacks. The raids targeted oil facilities captured by the ISIL. On Wednesday, US officials announced that Washington and its Arab allies had resumed airstrikes on the ISIL positions, which had begun a day earlier.

RT.com: Oil installations in Syria hit by anti-ISIS coalition
Finian Cunningham ■ US seeks to target Syrian govt.

Tyler Durden ■ Thanks to a dizzying barrage of lies, mainstream media fear-mongering and a couple of beheadings, the Obama Administration finally achieved its long sought after war in Syria. The tactic that proved most effective in mobilizing the American public back into a shivering, post-9/11 fetal position, was the same tactic used by elites in the UK to convince Scotland against voting for independence. That tactic, as I detailed in a recent post, is fear. However, fear in itself is not enough. It must be coupled with endless slogans and misdirection by the mainstream media and politicians. It must lead the public to subconsciously embrace a thought process that is completely irrational. Such tactics can be labeled propaganda, and it results in a public suddenly supporting a war it strongly opposed only a year ago. All it takes is a little repackaging. Propaganda allows those who profit from war to push the American public into a tizzy of trepidation based on a couple of beheadings from ISIS, while not batting an eye over the daily beheadings that were simultaneously occurring in Saudi Arabia. So the power structure and its impotent puppet, Barack Obama, intentionally pushed the American public into a frenzy of fear and finally got their little war.

Barry Grey ■ Deceit and delusion at the United Nations
Stephen Lendman ■ Obama's Demagogic UN Address
RT.com: Obama: ISIS must be destroyed, there will be no negotiations
RT.com: Russia tops ISIS threat, Ebola worst of all? Lavrov puzzled by Obama’s UN speech

Stephen Lendman ■ No declaration of war exists. No legal authority. No national emergency. No existential or other threats. No enemies targeting America. No Security Council authorization. No congressional OK. No justifiable reason to wage war. No reason ever to do so except in self-defense if attacked. None occurred.

Breitbart: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in an interview with Yahoo News, hinted at American ground troops “ultimately” going into Syria ● President Obama has repeatedly said that he will not send U.S. ground troops into Iraq or Syria. Holder also indicated that the U.S. may launch more attacks against the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group and revealed that the White House has been monitoring the group for two years. During an interview published Wednesdayday, Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric asked Holder how the U.S. airstrikes in Syria on Monday night had impacted the Khorasan Group. “We’re certainly going to have to look at the impact of these strikes that were taken last night,” Holder said. “I also assume that those are not the only strikes that will be taken against the Khorasan Group or the other strikes that we took in Syria. It will take a prolonged period of time for these strikes and ultimately for the ground troops that will have to come in and deal with these people.”

Joseph Kishore ■ The United Nations Security Council passed a broadly worded resolution on Wednesday targeting the flow of “foreign terrorist fighters” internationally. While presented as a response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the resolution is aimed at legitimizing a raft of antidemocratic measures as part of a renewed “war on terror.” Significantly, the resolution does not purport to authorize the bombing of Syria that began early Tuesday morning. The United States and other imperialist powers, together with their allies among the Gulf monarchies, have launched the new war—directed ultimately at the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—without even seeking UN sanction. [...] Security Council Resolution 2178, passed in a unanimous 15-0 vote, directs all countries in the UN to “prevent and suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training, and the financing of their travel and of their activities.” The resolution was adopted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, making it legally binding on all member countries. Chapter 7 governs the Security Council’s response to any “breach of the peace or act of aggression,” including authorizing military or nonmilitary action. While the resolution does not explicitly mention military action, it will no doubt be cited in the future for this purpose. To this end, the definition of “terrorism” is left for individual countries to determine. [...] The UN resolution is also part of efforts to utilize ISIS to strengthen state spying powers and deflect public outrage over the illegal and unconstitutional National Security Agency (NSA) programs revealed over the past year. In his remarks before the Security Council, Obama said that the resolution “will strengthen cooperation between nations, including sharing more information about the travel and activities of foreign terrorist organizations.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (Peta) first shot at religious activism — a call to Muslims to observe a vegetarian Eid this October — has misfired. It met with violent protests here on Monday. One policeman was injured and a Peta volunteer roughed up by protestors, which included women, and later whisked away by Bhopal police. Peta woman volunteer "Benazir Suraiya" attempted to make an appeal to Muslims to go vegetarian at the legendary Taj-ul-Masajid, said to be one of Asia's largest mosques. Camouflaged in a green hijab, to highlight the importance of vegetarianism, she walked towards the mosque gates with a couple of PETA volunteers holding a placard in Urdu and English which read: "Make Eid Happy for All. Try Vegan". With less than a dozen policemen deployed, locals took the opportunity and shouted slogans asking her to turn back. She was forced to take cover along with another PETA volunteer in the market outside the mosque. Within minutes the crowd swelled and Suraiya was left to fend for herself as PETA supporters fled the scene. "We are going to get a taxi for Suraiya. Police has been called for support too," said PETA volunteer Divya.